Airports Authority Announces Intent to Award Final Major Silver Line Phase 2 Contract

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The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority on Wednesday issued a Notice of Recommended Award to Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Chantilly, Va. to design and build the rail yard and maintenance facility for Phase 2 of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, known as the Silver Line. The announcement of the Notice of Recommended Award formally identifies Hensel Phelps as the apparent successful offeror for the contract, referred to as Package B, but does not constitute a final award of the contract.

The announcement follows an Airports Authority review of Hensel Phelps’ $252,989,000 price proposal, which was determined to meet all necessary requirements. Hensel Phelps’ price proposal was the lowest of the four received by the Airports Authority following ‘request for qualifications information,’ which identified teams meeting the necessary preliminary requirements, and is below the contract’s estimated costs.

The Notice of Recommended Award is the latest step in a competitive procurement process. The Airports Authority will now request additional documentation from the team, including insurance certificates, and payment and performance bonds. A final award of the contract is expected in July with completion of the project anticipated in approximately five years.

Package B, the design-build contract for the rail yard and maintenance facility, is the second and final major contract for Phase 2 of the Silver Line Project. Package A, which includes the construction of six stations, 11.4 miles of track and guideways and wayside components, was awarded in May 2013 to Capital Rail Constructors, a team consisting of Clark Construction Group and Kiewit Infrastructure South Co.

The Silver Line project is being built in two parts by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and undertaken in partnership with Loudoun and Fairfax counties and the Commonwealth of Virginia. In May 2014 Phase 1, which connects to the Orange Line in Falls Church, Va., and runs to Wiehle Avenue in Reston, Va., was turned over to the Washington Metropolitan Areas Transit Authority, which has set an anticipated opening date of July 26, 2014. Early construction on Phase 2, which will run from Wiehle Avenue to Washington Dulles International Airport and beyond into Loudoun County, Va., has started.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, established in 1987 by the governments of Virginia and the District of Columbia, manages and operates Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles International airports, which together serve more than 40 million passengers a year. The Airports Authority also operates and maintains the Dulles Airport Access Road and the Dulles Toll Road and manages construction of the Silver Line project, a 23-mile extension of the Washington region’s Metrorail system into Loudoun County, Va. No tax dollars are used to operate the toll road, which is funded by toll revenues, or the airports, which are funded through aircraft landing fees, rents and revenues from concessions. The Silver Line construction is funded by a combination of toll-road revenues, airport contributions and federal, state and local government appropriations. The Airports Authority is led by a 17-member board of directors, appointed by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, the mayor of Washington, D.C., and the president of the United States, and generates more than 387,000 jobs and 4.5 percent of GDP in the National Capital Region.